Solar plane nears end of historic round-the-world trip

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Abu Dhabi - Solar Impulse 2 was on Monday
approaching the end of its epic bid to become the first sun-powered plane to circle the globe without a drop of
fuel to promote renewable energy.

When the experimental aircraft touches down in Abu
Dhabi in the early hours of Tuesday it will cap a remarkable 42 000-kilometre journey
across four continents, two oceans and three seas.

With Swiss explorer and project director Bertrand
Piccard in the cockpit, the plane is due to land at Al-Bateen Executive Airport
in the UAE capital where it launched its tour on March 9, 2015.

On Monday Solar Impulse 2 was flying over the Saudi
desert north of Riyadh, heading towards the Gulf.

"After a turbulent night from extremely high temperatures, the sun rose above
a desert of sand dunes above #SaudiArabia," Piccard said on Twitter.

Dubbed the "paper plane", Solar Impulse 2
is circumnavigating the globe in stages, with 58-year-old Piccard and his
compatriot Andre Borschberg taking turns at the controls of the single-seat
aircraft.

It took off from Cairo on its final leg early on
Sunday, having previously crossed Asia, North America, Europe, and North
Africa.

Borschberg, 63, smashed the record for the longest
uninterrupted journey in aviation history with the 8 924-kilometre flight
between Nagoya, Japan and Hawaii that lasted 118 hours.

No heavier than a car but with the wingspan of a
Boeing 747, the four-engine battery-powered aircraft relies on around 17 000
solar cells embedded in its wings.

Its broad wings and light weight make it particularly
sensitive to turbulence.

The plane has clocked an average speed of 80
kilometres per hour.

Solar Impulse 2 takes off from Cairo's International Airport in Egypt on Sunday. (AFP)

'Achieve
the impossible'

The pilots use oxygen tanks to breathe while at
high altitude and wear suits specially designed to cope with the extreme
conditions.

The plane, equipped with a parachute and life raft
in case of an accident, flew at an altitude exceeding 9 144 metres over Saudi
Arabia on Sunday.

Piccard has said he launched the project in 2003 to
show that renewable energy "can achieve the impossible".

His dream looks set to come true but it took much
longer than planned.

The bid was initially expected to last five months,
including 25 days of actual flying.

But the aircraft was grounded in July last year
when its solar-powered batteries suffered problems halfway through the trip.

The project has also been beset by bad weather
conditions and illness which forced Piccard to delay the final leg.

While in the air, the pilot is constantly in
contact with the mission control centre in Monaco, where a team of weathermen,
mathematicians and engineers monitor the route and prepare flight strategies.

"It's a project for energy, for a better
world," were Piccard's last words to journalists in Cairo before taking
off.

'Flying
laboratory'

A psychiatrist who made the first non-stop balloon
flight around the world in 1999, Piccard had warned that the last leg of the
Solar Impulse 2 tour would be difficult due to the high temperatures.

"It's been two hours now I'm flying into high
up and down drafts. And I can't even drink. It's really exhausting...," he
tweeted on Sunday.

Speaking to the BBC from the cockpit, Piccard
described the final stage as a "fantastic moment" and likened the
plane to a "flying laboratory".

"We are testing all these new, clean and
modern technologies in order to fly with an endless endurance," he said.

While the pilots do not expect commercial
solar-powered planes any time soon, they hope the project will help spur wider
progress in clean energy.

"We have new insulation material, new LED
lamps, we have new extremely light carbon fibre structures... All this can be used
now on the ground," dividing "by two the energy consumption and
therefore the CO2 emissions of the world," Piccard said.

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